Day Five

It's another hot one already and the photos and the notebooks don't tally. We have nine people running amok, divided into two teams. Khun Sing has some personal problems, my wheelbarrow has been secunded, again, the gass has run out in the kitchen and 'some kind person' has unplugged the charger for the camera. Other than that, we proceed as normall .

Covers off, Sing makes a start on tweaking the pillar rods.

Extra binders are added and the site is carefully measured to get a uniform size for the pillars.

Khun Lee then goes into hyperdrive and starts laying bricks with gusto.

Meanwhile, around the back, there's a spot of 'good old fashioned time wasting', before the main event.

It seems that we are waiting for this important bit, so that we can make it to the corner,

...and the conga line advances a bit further.

The last mix of the day,

...and the subsequent rush to pour it. Notice the wall in the background that the others have managed.

A shot from the front balcony.

A bit of bad news, my wonderfull, Isaan style wheelbarrow has suffered massive bearing failure. Whilst the bearings are not exactly high tech, it's still a pain and the lads are forbidden to borrow it again.

The news is taken in good spirit. In fact, they are still laughing as they pull off down the drive.

The wall will be metres, not miles, and I have the costs somewhere. To be honest, I'm having enough trouble finding all the pic's, so please be patient.

Pink Floyd have, as yet, not replied to my e-mails, but we did play the 'HeBeGeBes' version of Michael Jackson's (RIP) 'Off the wall', when we tested the lights near the end.

Sorry about the mile. I just read another thread about farangs "stealing" land from the poor farmers in Esaan
Nice pitures, are this the same crew that built you house?
Will you put anything on top of the wall to keep out the "wild animals"?

Day Six

After the dissapointingly poor performance of the camera batteries, yesterday, I am in no mood for trifles. I stride about with some sort of purpose but the team doesn't want to play. The decent brickie and the joker are on another job and the others are behaving like someone has died. Lacking the necessary language skills to make respectfull enquiries, I bide my time and mooch about looking for wildlife. Then I notice that we have had a visit from the hard wood batten fairy.

I have no idea what they could, possibly, be used for, yet.

Meanwhile, down at the wall site, the covers are off and Khun Chy, the Apprentice, has drawn the short straw. He gets started with enthusiasm but is painfully slow.

At the other end of the garden, Sing is preparing the ground for the back beam and, late arriving, Somchai prepares to burst forth with his own vairiations of laying bricks like a loony.

Chy makes it past the tree.

Here is a close up of the metal hook that goes trough the pillar frame and hooks onto the blocks either side. When the blocks are the right hight, and there is room to move, the linking rods will be wired to a binder so that when the pillar gets poured, the blocks will be solid.

The back beam goes in and my attention is drawn to the handy looking crow bar. Good for lifting concrete methinks.

Somchai has gone into hyperdrive.

By Lunch time, Chy has managed three courses at the tall end,

...and Chit is making good headway shuttering the back beam.

The block Elves then arrive with another thousand, or so.

...and the team knock off early, for some reason. At last we get a smile.

Day Seven

Today, they say, it is going to rain and the Company want a decision about the last, not square side. They say that they can get the tractor over later today, if only I would make up my mind. I had not realised this, of couse, because no one had actually mentioned it.

"Off with the last post", I cried, in the style of some mad king.

With a real sense of urgency, or pre-rain excitement, the lads were throwning themselves at it.

They got the beam poured in double quick time,

...just before the rain started.

This was a good excuse for a little down time,

..and the odd nap.

It rained for about an hour, then there was a little of the 'wiring the block links to the binders' that we dicussed earlier.

The tractor then appeared and Sing marked out a new line with rope and a few, well placed, plastic bags.

I've been struggling to remember the guys name, not that it makes any difference, but he did a good job and the loss of a part of the front garden didn't seem quite so bad. Gate will have to open on the other side though.

Meanwhile, out the front, the boys enjoy a spot of gossip over the garden wall as the water pipe level gets another look-in.

Extra metal is cut for the pillars and stuff,

...before the hevens open again and we have to shelter in the porch for an adhoc master class in base plate construction.

I love the make do and mend attitude of the village workers. They can knock something up out of scraps and it works well

I was watching some builders making a wall in the UK, essentially the same. They had all sorts of premade jigs and spacers, but the wall looked the same in the end. Saving worker time becomes paramount when they are being paid £8+ per hour

Day Fifteen

We've gone three days without a sign. A? tells me that it is not a problem, as he is sure that we can finish on time. He forgets to tell me that they are doing another two jobs, for richer people, at the same time as ours. I keep quiet.

Anyway, The team rip the covers off the mid-beam section and Sing carries on with the all important rod tweaking.

Somchai gets started on the, already, dwindling pile of blocks,

...and the new boy, Goon, starts repairing the hose pipe with bits of old motorcy inner tube.

God poses for his mugshot (his mrs was delighted),

...before making his way down to the last beam assembly point.

Nuy is busy cuttin blocks down, to make up the thickness of the mid beam.

Somchai quickly puts them in a safe place.

Having tweaked his rods, Sing starts cleaning up the pillar stubs at the back of the high wall. He dresses the tops with a bit of pug, so that the top beam framework will sit nicely in position.

Back on the beam, the channel has made it to the other side of the drive,

...the last section is just about ready,

....but it looks like rain, a lot, is nearly here.

We make it to the last turn before the wind starts blowing.

Last edited by Loombucket; 09-09-2009 at 07:02 PM.
Reason: Sticky keys (sounds like a place in Florida)

How many days was this wall building projected to last? (ie how many days are you behind schedule?)

The job was supposed to take fourty days. That included all the walls to 'being painted' standard, steps down to the rear archway and a runner beam for the gate. We have, so far, lost four full days, due to 'other work' and one whole and two half days due to rain. Not the end of the world and about the same as we lost during the start of the house build.

Originally Posted by DrAndy

It is good to see a happy bunch of workers; glad you treat them with respect and some humour

Absolutely! Their needs were small. Fresh water, with ice, every morning and top-ups. A bit of shade that they can all get under to eat their food and enough room for them all to take a nap afterwards. Sometimes I would go to the little shop next door and, after I could pronounce their names properly, handed out little bottles of red bull. Sing always had coffee.

Being accepted by the team brought other rewards, such as 'being allowed' to stir the concrete mix ( "I made some of this myself " * Blows on knuckles and rubs on chest*), a ride in the Isaan style business buggy, the odd child round to play, honest answers from the crew and access to the after work drinks club and simple conversation.

Day Seventeen

Preocupied with finding room for ten workers to eat and nap and scuttling about with two water pots with ice, I failed to notice that it was quite late when the team eventually arrived. Both of them. I had to laugh to myself.

Anyway, Sing and Chit quickly errected the woodwork for the front pillars.

Sing was not about to have his ears tickled by the Bamboo and hopped on top, of the wall, to prune a few bits off.

Once the area was more easily navigated, the front pillars were poured quite rapidly.

After that, there wasn't much that the two of them could do and, in any case, the cement was all gone. Here, Sing catches up on a little quality time and Chit makes a few more links for the top beams.

This bucketfull should keep us going for a while.

Then Chit has a nap and Sing shows off his skill with the cutter,

.....and then the walloper.

The powder fairies came a little late. The poor little things must have been knackered after this lot.

Day Eighteen

It's another glorious Sunny morning and Sing is too busy to make it today. The last lot of blocks have arrived as well as these ones with holes. I had to count them four times and broke one just tapping it with a stick.

The others run about recycling pillar cases and putting up a makeshift scaffold so they can reach the top of the wall.

After lunch, we get started on the last ground beam, but we are running out of stone.

Not to worry, it's a long push to the mixing tank anyway.

There are quite a number of steps in this section and a certain ammount of care was necassary to get the levels right. The guys do the best they can but it would have been better to send a few more hands.

In full flight and trying to finish.

Here at the join, it looks like they ran out of gloop just at the last.